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NIGERIA OIL SPILLS Are WORSE! -Do We Care?-by John Vidal, The Guardian.

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignoreit. The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around theworld, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to livewith environmental catastrophes for decades...

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals,pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than hasbeen lost in the Gulf of Mexico...

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the stateof Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the deltaover seven days before the leak was stopped. Local peopledemonstrated against the company but say they were attackedby security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bnin compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered.Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tarare being washed up along the coast... "We are faced withincessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 yearsold," said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.

This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader inIbeno: "Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die.In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills andfishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable."

With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crudethe United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution.Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have noaccess to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years overthe past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes theirland and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps takenby BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak andto protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.

"If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the governmentnor the company would have paid much attention," said the writerBen Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. "This kind of spill happensall the time in the delta."

"The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care andpeople must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worsethan it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see theefforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadnessat the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe isvery different."